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Game 76: Bob Returns In Style

Posted Apr 4, 2014
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

Sergei Bobrovsky holds no animosity toward the Philadelphia Flyers, he said. He was delighted to be traded to Columbus in 2012, because it represented the dawn of a new world, a new chance to be a No. 1 goaltender.

But if Bobrovsky spends the rest of his career making the Flyers regret that decision -- how much is Philly still paying Ilya Bryzgalov? -- that's OK, too.

Bobrovsky had 37 saves for the eighth shutout of his career, leading the Blue Jackets to a 2-0 win over the Flyers tonight before 19,981 in Wells Fargo Center. James Wisniewski had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Dubinsky had a clutch goal early in the third period.

It was a momentous night for reasons that extend beyond Bobrovsky.

"We needed this game," Bobrovsky said. "That was my focus."

The Blue Jackets had never won a game in Philadelphia before tonight. They'd been 0-5-1 in this city, including embarrassing losses in their last two trips.

But more importantly, tonight's game had a heavy bearing on the Eastern Conference playoff races.

Had the Blue Jackets lost in regulation to the Flyers, they would have fallen out of a playoff spot, and they would have drifted six points behind the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division with six games to play. In other words, they would have been almost certainly bound to a wild-card spot, meaning they would have faced (most likely) Boston or (less likely) Pittsburgh in the first round.

Instead, the win keeps the Blue Jackets only two points back of the Flyers, and each team has six games remaining.

"We obviously knew what was at stake," Wisniewski said. "This was a big ol' four-point game for us. Right like that, we're right there. We just have to keep it going. We don't want to back into anything, we want to grab what we can. Tonight was huge."

The Blue Jackets killed three penalties in the first period to keep the game all squared at 0. After wandering for much of the second period -- shots were 26-13 in favor of the Flyers midway through the period -- the Blue Jackets gained momentum thanks to their power play.

Repeat: the Blue Jackets gained momentum thanks to their power play.

The Jackets went up a skater at 15:13 of the second when Flyers center Sean Couturier was boxed for slashing.

Over the next two minutes, the Blue Jackets pumped all kinds of rubber at Flyers goaltender Steve Mason -- nine shots on goal total, four of which got through to the former Blue Jackets' netminder.

With six seconds left on the power play, and 2:53 remaining in the second period, Wisneiwski powered the puck over Mason's pad to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead.

The Blue Jackets carried that 1-0 lead into the second intermission ... and yes a certain topic arose.

Last time the Blue Jackets played here -- Dec. 19 -- they carried a 3-0 lead in the third period, gave up five goals and lost 5-4, the first time in franchise history -- yes, really -- they've carried a three-goal lead into the third period and lost in regulation.

A fresher memory: on Tuesday, the Jackets had a 2-0 lead in Nationwide Arena against the Colorado Avalanche and lost 3-2. Now, that wasn't a total collapse: all three goals by the Avs were bad-luck, own-goal bounces off Blue Jackets before they went into the net.

But the hammer was not applied in those cases. Tonight, many hands swung the hammer.

"We talked about finishing strong, about what happened here last time and what happened (earlier this week) against Colorado," Blue Jackets right wing Cam Atkinson said. "We wanted to handle it the right way."

Wisniewski brought it up himself: "I like how we kept our foot on the pedal. We played it smart, but we didn't lay back and just defend the whole time. Our defense was active, and we supported each other. It wasn't them just coming in wave after wave until something bad happens."

The Blue Jackets dominated the first few shifts of the third period, drawing boos from the surgly orange-clad on-lookers and causing many of them to head to the exits early.

At 3:02 of the third, an Atkinson slap shot ricocheted off Dubinsky's left skate and went between Mason's pads for a 2-0 Blue Jackets lead.

That was more than Bobrovsky needed on the way to his eighth career shutout.

Mason was pulled for an extra skater with 2:34 remaining, and Bobrovsky made two close-range stops on Flyers forward Scott Hartnell just 15 seconds later.

“When you interact with Bob every day you see how he is,” Richards said. “It’s always about the team, never about him.

“To come into a really big hockey game, and come in here and shut these guys out, it says a lot about Bob. You can ask every player in that dressing room; everybody is really happy for him.”

Side dishes:

-- Wisniewski has surpassed Jaroslav Spacek as the club record-holder for points by a defenseman in a season. Wisniewski now has 7-39-46 for the Blue Jackets this season, putting him top 10 in the league.

-- All eight of Bobrovsky's career shutouts have come since his trade to Columbus. That's eight in 91 games with the Blue Jackets after zero in 83 games with the Flyers.

-- Bobrovsky is 2-0 with a .969 save percentage and 1.00 goals-against average in two career starts vs. the Flyers.

-- Dubinsky played 21:04 tonight. He also won 12 faceoffs.

-- Jack Johnson logged 27:46 in the game and blocked four shots in the third period.

-- The Rangers gave up a tying goal to Colorado in the final minute and lost 3-2 in a shootout tonight in Denver. So the Blueshirts have a six point lead on the Blue Jackets, but the Jackets have two games in hand.

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